This episode is a mix of Black Mirror's "White Christmas" and, ironically enough, two Star Trek episodes - the Next Generation episode "Hollow Pursuits" (in which a socially awkward crew member who struggles to fit in on the real Enterprise creates a fantasy world on the holodeck and fills it with copies of the crew who adore and look up to him) and the Voyager episode "The Thaw" (in which a small number of people are trapped and abused in a nightmarish virtual reality run by an omnipotent AI who has the power to physically transform them or kill them). The idea of digitally cloning someone from their DNA, including their entire memories and consciousness, isn't one of Black Mirror's strongest concepts - it's "DNA is magic" anti-science of the kind that was the undoing of several Voyager and Enterprise episodes. (Plus why would the physical DNA need to be kept when it's already been digitalized?)
The real theme of this episode is "What if the 'cookie' digital-twin technology from White Christmas got into the hands of a Wolfgang Priklopil-type character?" But USS Callister has no interest in the broader societal ramifications and ethical issues of this question - we spend very little time in the real world and learn next to nothing about the society the episode is taking place in - it's just a hostage/adventure horror-thriller with a Trek visual twist. To its detriment, unlike Hollow Pursuits and The Thaw, USS Callister never makes the effort to get inside the central figure's head, even though that's where we spend the majority of the episode. The fun side of the episode as a hammy Star Trek parody - and there are plenty of jokes here - is a mismatch with the abduction/torture side; you can't enjoy the humor because the situation it's taking place in is so horrifying. Rather than black humor that the characters use to help them cope with the situation (which could have worked), it's "lol Star Trek is corny" humor, which feels out of place given the gravitas of events.
This is the first Black Mirror episode that I felt was conservative and sanitized. Sanitized in the sense that a) someone doing what Daly was doing, having gone to the trouble of digitally abducting people, castrating the men and even murdering a child - would almost certainly have sexually exploited the women; indeed, that would likely have been his prime motivation in creating a simulation with copies of his female colleagues. I get that they were referencing Star Trek's rather asexual sensibility (implying Daly too was a somewhat asexual figure), but it didn't feel credible - Black Mirror has never shied away from grim realism in the past, and someone as malevolent, unscrupulous and entitled as Daly would likely also have felt entitled to the women's bodies. (Even the far less sinister Barclay in Hollow Pursuits reimagined Troi as a "love goddess".) b) The sex and violence is also sanitized - when the characters browse Cole's archive of explicit naked photos, the episode doesn't even dare show breasts, nor more graphic violence when Walton is burnt. As well as belying its harrowing premise with a sanitized treatment, the episode is also conservative in the sense that its politics are unchallengingly right-on - nothing is really examined, probed, or challenged here, save for some lazy stabs at toxic male gamers (a la #gamergate) that have a very recycled and even smug feel to them, and there's not much theme-wise to think about afterwards. The best aspect of the episode is the fact the characters work together in the Trekkian spirit to get out of their predicament. In terms of the characterization, while the performances are fine, all the characters are regrettably one-dimensional - we don't get to know anybody enough, even Cole, the episode's hero. While the simulated Walton has the potential to serve as a positive white male role model and example of fatherhood in contrast to Daly's toxic masculinity, the fact the real-world Walton acts so obnoxiously and exploitatively undermines this.
How did Cole get into Daly's apartment? Why was her message to herself not more specific? Why did no-one go to the police? Why would a patch manifest as a wormhole? Why would the mod be left running when the player was offline, allowing the characters to plot their escape? Wouldn't a popular commercial gaming system have safeguards to prevent people from dying while using it, like Daly does in the overly neat ending? How come they could use the console on the bridge to send an invite, and give specific commands (beam up the tricorder, fly towards the wormhole etc.) when earlier the buttons were just dummies, and pressing "any button" simply carried out the story's (or Daly's) predetermined command? After the ship leaves the mod, why doesn't "Gillian from Marketing" reappear on the bridge when Shania and the Khan guy do? So many questions. And at the end, they're still stuck in a video game forever. (Except unlike in San Junipero, they didn't choose to be.)
I'm not gonna say the episode misunderstands Star Trek, because that's not the key problem; the key problem is that it misunderstands the reason Star Trek appeals to smart outsiders/geeks/socially awkward people. Because it shows - through characters like Spock, Data, Odo, the Doc, as well as the many ethnic minority and alien characters - a diverse future world where you can be different and still belong, be accepted and be respected, even if you aren't in the present day. When it comes to the episode's treatment of Daly, there's a difference between understanding and sympathizing with a character that's totally lost here. A piece of drama should be interested in understanding what makes its villain tick without necessarily sympathizing with them - it's part of what makes a good villain or just a good character. No-one tries to get into Daly's head; this episode desperately needed some smart, psychologically-driven dialog scenes like those in The Thaw, when Janeway muses on the nature of fear and says "You want this to end as much as we do" to the demonic AI controlling the simulation. TNG's Hollow Pursuits, meanwhile, is both understanding and sympathetic towards Barclay, while also making very clear that what he's doing is wrong and showing how the other characters are impacted by it.
Using the stereotype of a predator as a socially awkward loner is also disappointing writing. As the revelations of recent years attest, predators and abusers are often not awkward loners but highly charismatic individuals who hide in plain sight - think Louis CK, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Savile, or a funny and likable teacher I had as a kid who turned out to be abusing another pupil. Instead, the depiction in this episode is more likely to stigmatize autistic men (who already struggle with stigmatization) and Star Trek fans, and even tarnish perceptions of Star Trek itself. It's depictions like this episode that lead to deaths like that of Bijan Ebrahimi, a shy, lonely, single middle-aged disabled man in the UK who was beaten to death by his neighbors because they mistakenly thought he was a pedophile.
Sending out the message "Star Trek is corny and Trek fans are socially awkward white men lol" is lazy (especially for Black Mirror). Sending out the message "Star Trek is corny and Trek fans are socially awkward white men with no possibility of redemption" is reprehensible. Certain lines and scenes feel like they yearn to generate Buzzfeed articles. USS Callister could've been a really good exploration of how some men really do live lonely lives and use virtual reality as an escape, and how and why that happens, as well as a powerful discourse on women's experiences of surviving and fighting back against disturbed predatory men. But it chooses to forego any examination of societal themes in favor of mediocre thrills and gags, glib answers and easy point-scoring. Black Mirror's weaker episodes in the past have at least felt challenging and like they had something to say, thoughts on their mind, as well as having well-developed characters. This is the first episode of Black Mirror that feels unchallenging and with poor characterization.
The real theme of this episode is "What if the 'cookie' digital-twin technology from White Christmas got into the hands of a Wolfgang Priklopil-type character?" But USS Callister has no interest in the broader societal ramifications and ethical issues of this question - we spend very little time in the real world and learn next to nothing about the society the episode is taking place in - it's just a hostage/adventure horror-thriller with a Trek visual twist. To its detriment, unlike Hollow Pursuits and The Thaw, USS Callister never makes the effort to get inside the central figure's head, even though that's where we spend the majority of the episode. The fun side of the episode as a hammy Star Trek parody - and there are plenty of jokes here - is a mismatch with the abduction/torture side; you can't enjoy the humor because the situation it's taking place in is so horrifying. Rather than black humor that the characters use to help them cope with the situation (which could have worked), it's "lol Star Trek is corny" humor, which feels out of place given the gravitas of events.
This is the first Black Mirror episode that I felt was conservative and sanitized. Sanitized in the sense that a) someone doing what Daly was doing, having gone to the trouble of digitally abducting people, castrating the men and even murdering a child - would almost certainly have sexually exploited the women; indeed, that would likely have been his prime motivation in creating a simulation with copies of his female colleagues. I get that they were referencing Star Trek's rather asexual sensibility (implying Daly too was a somewhat asexual figure), but it didn't feel credible - Black Mirror has never shied away from grim realism in the past, and someone as malevolent, unscrupulous and entitled as Daly would likely also have felt entitled to the women's bodies. (Even the far less sinister Barclay in Hollow Pursuits reimagined Troi as a "love goddess".) b) The sex and violence is also sanitized - when the characters browse Cole's archive of explicit naked photos, the episode doesn't even dare show breasts, nor more graphic violence when Walton is burnt. As well as belying its harrowing premise with a sanitized treatment, the episode is also conservative in the sense that its politics are unchallengingly right-on - nothing is really examined, probed, or challenged here, save for some lazy stabs at toxic male gamers (a la #gamergate) that have a very recycled and even smug feel to them, and there's not much theme-wise to think about afterwards. The best aspect of the episode is the fact the characters work together in the Trekkian spirit to get out of their predicament. In terms of the characterization, while the performances are fine, all the characters are regrettably one-dimensional - we don't get to know anybody enough, even Cole, the episode's hero. While the simulated Walton has the potential to serve as a positive white male role model and example of fatherhood in contrast to Daly's toxic masculinity, the fact the real-world Walton acts so obnoxiously and exploitatively undermines this.
How did Cole get into Daly's apartment? Why was her message to herself not more specific? Why did no-one go to the police? Why would a patch manifest as a wormhole? Why would the mod be left running when the player was offline, allowing the characters to plot their escape? Wouldn't a popular commercial gaming system have safeguards to prevent people from dying while using it, like Daly does in the overly neat ending? How come they could use the console on the bridge to send an invite, and give specific commands (beam up the tricorder, fly towards the wormhole etc.) when earlier the buttons were just dummies, and pressing "any button" simply carried out the story's (or Daly's) predetermined command? After the ship leaves the mod, why doesn't "Gillian from Marketing" reappear on the bridge when Shania and the Khan guy do? So many questions. And at the end, they're still stuck in a video game forever. (Except unlike in San Junipero, they didn't choose to be.)
I'm not gonna say the episode misunderstands Star Trek, because that's not the key problem; the key problem is that it misunderstands the reason Star Trek appeals to smart outsiders/geeks/socially awkward people. Because it shows - through characters like Spock, Data, Odo, the Doc, as well as the many ethnic minority and alien characters - a diverse future world where you can be different and still belong, be accepted and be respected, even if you aren't in the present day. When it comes to the episode's treatment of Daly, there's a difference between understanding and sympathizing with a character that's totally lost here. A piece of drama should be interested in understanding what makes its villain tick without necessarily sympathizing with them - it's part of what makes a good villain or just a good character. No-one tries to get into Daly's head; this episode desperately needed some smart, psychologically-driven dialog scenes like those in The Thaw, when Janeway muses on the nature of fear and says "You want this to end as much as we do" to the demonic AI controlling the simulation. TNG's Hollow Pursuits, meanwhile, is both understanding and sympathetic towards Barclay, while also making very clear that what he's doing is wrong and showing how the other characters are impacted by it.
Using the stereotype of a predator as a socially awkward loner is also disappointing writing. As the revelations of recent years attest, predators and abusers are often not awkward loners but highly charismatic individuals who hide in plain sight - think Louis CK, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Savile, or a funny and likable teacher I had as a kid who turned out to be abusing another pupil. Instead, the depiction in this episode is more likely to stigmatize autistic men (who already struggle with stigmatization) and Star Trek fans, and even tarnish perceptions of Star Trek itself. It's depictions like this episode that lead to deaths like that of Bijan Ebrahimi, a shy, lonely, single middle-aged disabled man in the UK who was beaten to death by his neighbors because they mistakenly thought he was a pedophile.
Sending out the message "Star Trek is corny and Trek fans are socially awkward white men lol" is lazy (especially for Black Mirror). Sending out the message "Star Trek is corny and Trek fans are socially awkward white men with no possibility of redemption" is reprehensible. Certain lines and scenes feel like they yearn to generate Buzzfeed articles. USS Callister could've been a really good exploration of how some men really do live lonely lives and use virtual reality as an escape, and how and why that happens, as well as a powerful discourse on women's experiences of surviving and fighting back against disturbed predatory men. But it chooses to forego any examination of societal themes in favor of mediocre thrills and gags, glib answers and easy point-scoring. Black Mirror's weaker episodes in the past have at least felt challenging and like they had something to say, thoughts on their mind, as well as having well-developed characters. This is the first episode of Black Mirror that feels unchallenging and with poor characterization.